Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-05-19
WHY NatnraI GasIs

The theories OF geologists as to natural gas
having been pretty generally upset, leaving
them call at sea" on the subject, its origin
and source is at least as legitimate subject
for speculation for the average non-scientifc
citizen as the real estate that is inflated by it,
and it does not cost so much.
For purely uRscientifc theory how will
this do?
II is generally accepted as fact, from e1-
ternal indications, such as volcanoes and the
degree of heat found in deep mines, that the
bowels of the earth are in red-hot and in
famed condition. Gases constitute a
large component part of all solid
substances, and heat has the effect to
separate these solids into their constituent
elements and to drive of the gases, which,
from their nature and by the laws of gravita-
ton, ascend. Applying this to the earth, is
it not a reasonable supposition that the
interior heat of the earth is constantly driv-
Jug of and liberating great quantities of gas
that in obedience to the law of gravitation Is
constantly seeking an outlet to the earth's
surface, and in that way under great and in
creasing pressure forces its way through the
least resisting strata to the nearest point it
can attain to the earth's surface, and is only
released from its captivity by the drill of
some inquisitive and speculative human
earthworm?
The poor, despised earthworm, that was
formerly regarded as especially designed and
constructed to fit on a fsh-hook, is now re-
cognized as of much greater utility to man,
in the service it renders to him, as cultiva-
tor of the soil. So, in the economy of nature
these human earthworms are performing a
service to man that we little appreciate. The
earth is vast gas machine, which has been
for ages manufacturing and storing up such
pressure of gas that it has lifted its gasome-
ters (the continents and islands) out of the
waters that formerly covered its whole sur
face. In the fullness of time, when this pres
sure has become so great that these gasome-
ters are liable to be blown skyward out of the
water, and at time when the necessities of
the human race, in its growth in numbers
and civilization, require cheaper and more
efficient fuel, these human earthworms,
guided by that higher power which we call in
to bore into the bowels of the earth and thus
tap these vast gasometers, and relieve the
earth from the great pressure in the nick of
time to save it and the whole human race
from impending disaster, and at the same
time furnish man with resources for his
future advancement in civilization that were
never dreamed of by the philosophers.
Man has been walking blindly for centuries
amid the evidences of this great fact, without
discovering it. Innumerable and appalling
accidents from the contact of miners lamps
with this gas have not lead to any other con-
ception of it than as sire damp" For ages
water from the depths of the earth has been
forced by it to the surface far above the sea
level, through natural and artificial openings
in the earth's crust, forming the sources of
rivers even, without any more reasonable
cause being assigned to it than it was water
from some higher source seeking level
Rivers of petroleum have flowed upwards to
the surface from great depths, against all
ldWS VI BEdFiIdhou, WlInoub suSplcloA Va Vho
mighty power behind it. s....
Under its mighty pressure the earth crust,
like strained boiler, is leaking at every
seam, and we find it bubblipg up in wells
and in swamps, where, as the 'ignus fatuus, "
it has frightened the superstitious and pug
zled the scientist.
It is safe to say, therefore, that the gas
boom has come to stay, and those timid in
dividuals that are holding back and Erophe-
sying the speedy exhaustion of the gas wells
will only awake to the realization of the
truth when the world has adjusted itself to
this new source of power and wealth, and
they will be left with no occupation except to
kick themselves for their stupidity and lack
of foresight.